The Virtues of Drinking Scotch in a Desert
by BubbleGumPixie
Summary: Red-Cross volunteer spends an evening with Delta Company and finds herself in a drinking game with our favourite IED man.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Cassie and her filthy, filthy roommate.**

Cassie's mind was numb and she was overtaken with a sense of happiness she hadn't felt in a long time. Cassie was drunk, she hadn't had a serious drinking session in over two years, not since she'd graduated college.

"Time out!" She gasped around her third shot of scotch.

Sergeant Will James smiled at her evilly, knocking back his shot. "You can't call time out in a drinking game, you light-weight."

"Hey!" She slurred, pointing a wobbly finger at him in her drunken attempt at seriousness. "I am not a light-weight. I can drink as well as any of these nancy's."

She waved an arm around haphazardly, indicating his fallen comrades who were all asleep around the fire. "I out drank your merry men."

"Well my 'merry men' are feather-weights. The fact that you're still up just means you're a light-weight." His smirk was both irritating and arousing to her.

"Ah, wha'da you know?" She grumbled, holding out her empty shot glass. "Fill me up again, I'll show you light-weight."

"Alright," he sighed, cupping her wrist with one hand to steady her glass before he refilled it. Her wrist tingled when she pulled it back. "Your turn."

She feigned thinking, humming in a theatrical fashion making him chuckle darkly. "I have never shot a man."

"Low blow," Will snarked, tipping back his shot and going to refill it. "I have never dyed my hair."

Her eyebrows rose as her glass remained firmly on the sand beside her.

"Really?" He asked in disbelief. "That blonde is all you?"

"I'm from California, Sergeant. Sunlight does what a salon can for free with less damage. This," She flicked her blonde curls over her shoulder, "Is all natural."

"Right." He sat back on his hands and looked at her expectantly.

"Oh, my go. I have never had sex outdoors." She smiled, watching as he downed his shot once more.

"You were playing possum before weren't you?" He smirked, "You're good at this."

"I went to UCLA, of course I'm good at drinking games. We invented the damn things."

"I got you this time." He refilled his glass as she was satisfied to see that his hand was no longer as steady as it had been. "I have never had sex with my roommate."

Her eyes widened and she blushed from her cheeks to the roots of her hair before slowly bringing the glass to her lips and knocking it back.

"I knew it!" He crowed, "You were one of those Girls Gone Wild candidates in college."

"My room-mate was hot!" She insisted, smirking at him as he reached over to refill her once more. "Anyone with eyes wanted to bang her."

"I want to hear more about this roommate." Will smiled, swilling the contents of his glass around and eying her.

"Rachel was hot, classic all American girl next door. Blonde hair, amazing boobs and ass that just wouldn't quit." Cassie sat up, tucking her feet underneath her and leaning towards him. "Best lay I've ever had."

"Are you gay?" He asked, taken aback.

"Me? No, how about you?"

"Not even slightly." He smirked, "How is it that a woman is the best lay you've had if you're normally into dudes?"

"Because no man has ever lived up to the bar she set. The things that girl could do with her mouth…"

Cassie saw his intake of breath and the way his fists clenched. "You okay, Sergeant?" She asked.

"Me, uh yeah." He managed, swallowing past the lump in his throat.

"I'm sorry." Her smile was wicked as she leant further towards him. "I forget sometimes you guys are stuck out here for months on end without any unarmed female company. Me talking about my first lesbian experience with my hot blonde roommate must be very trying."

His breath quickened at her words and she bit her lip to stop herself laughing before she continued, "I mean, I'd seen her naked a ton of times when she got out of the shower. All wet and dripping, she had no sense of shame, she'd just walk around our room with not a stitch on while she dried off."

Cassie inched closer, her lips coming close to his ear, "When she was dry she'd stand in the room and apply lotion all over her body. And I mean all over…"

Her lips practically brushed his earlobe as she added, "I couldn't help myself, I had to fuck her."

He moved with intent, pulling her firmly into his lap and fastening his lips to hers with a bruising force. The moan she made was guttural, almost feral, as her arms wound around him, holding him to her as he devoured her. She felt a rush course through her body, one that only came with the right balance of alcohol and adrenaline. Her heart beat fast against her ribs as his calloused hands slipped under the fabric of her vest and pulled it over head, tossing it to the ground somewhere.

"Will," she moaned, her teeth nipping at his bottom lip. "You're friends are here…"

"They're unconscious." He said, dismissing her concern.

"But still…" She ground out, pressing down against the obvious outline of his erection through his pants.

"Fine." He groused, lifting her off his lap and onto her knees beside him. He grabbed her hand as he climbed up, tugging her away from their little camp fire towards the back of the barracks. He glanced around the corner, checking the coast was clear before he pulled her along behind him and quickly darted up the steps and into his room.

As soon as the door was shut behind them he had her pressed up against it, his legs pushing hers open so he could press against her, grinding his hips into hers and eliciting a guttural moan from her. He pulled her petite frame against his as he levered them away from the door and dumped her on the bed. She was up in seconds, dragging him to sit at the end as she straddled his lap again, nipping at his neck with her teeth.

A voice in his head was berating him, this was against every rule ever made in the history of Army-Red Cross relations. You protect those wearing the red and white vests, you take civilian casualties to those wearing the red and white vests but you do not, under any circumstances, fuck someone wearing a red and white vest. It was very easy to ignore that voice when she was slowly ground down onto him again. He growled as her lips moved to his ear nipping his earlobe with her teeth. He gripped her hips and ground her down against him harder. His name came from her lips as a moan and he was lost. The voice shut up and he rolled her around until she was pinned below him.

She started tugging at his shirt and he helped her as it was discarded somewhere over his shoulder. She reached her hands up and caressed the muscles of his chest, her finger tips grazing his nipples as she did so.

His eyes devoured her body. The soft peach skin of her chest slowly rose until it met the pink lace of her bra, something he'd never thought he'd see again after four months surrounded by sports bras and men, where it disappeared from his sight. His hand traced the edge, following the lace over her breast and down to where he skin reappeared. His fingers trailed a path from the centre of her stomach until he reached her belly button.

He moved down the bed dropping kisses across her stomach. She moaned, reaching down to entwine her hands in his hair. She tugged, a rough tug, and this wasn't a request. She was demanding his mouth back where she could get at it.

He growled again, the sound vibrating out of his chest and against the lace of her bra. He wanted to feel her skin against his without interruption. He rolled onto his back, taking her with him until she lay atop him, straddling his hips. He reached around her back, unsnapping the bra with a simple movement of his hand.

His eyes burned with desire as the bra started to fall away from her. Slowly it revealed every inch of her breasts until he could see her small pink nipples. He pulled it from her before sitting up the meet her and pressing his lips against every inch of the skin he had exposed.

His lips reached her nipple and he snaked his tongue out against it. She jolted as desire spiked inside her body and she groaned.

He moaned and she rocked, grinding herself down on his arousal again. It was intoxicating. He moved to her neck and nipped her with his teeth. She whimpered, gripping her fingers in his short cropped hair and tugging hard.

Another groan emanated from him and he rolled back, covering her body with his. The shorts she was wearing were pulled off, followed by her panties. He'd ripped them up, he knew it but he didn't care and she made no indication that she did. His trousers followed, disappearing somewhere at the end of the bed.

He pushed her down again, wrapping one of his hands around her wrists and yanking her hands above her head. He was going to claim this girl, she was going to be his. Even if it could only be in the most carnal sense he would own this girl, he would make her reassess having a woman taking the top spot as the best lay she'd ever had.

She struggled a little, gaining leverage with her legs and wrapped them around his waist. His arousal slid against her moist heat and they both groaned at the contact. He moved his length up and down, covering himself with her arousal before pulling back a little.

He looked into her eyes and waited. He needed some kind of permission; he wouldn't take her without it. Her lidded eyes sparkled as she arched, pushing her hips up against him and pulling his tip into her.

He groaned at the heat of her, she was exquisite. He lent down and nipped her ear. She arched again, taking him further and he paused, nipping her shoulder, trying to control the basic animalistic urge to take her hard and fast.

She moaned his name and he lost his battle, he bit down onto her shoulder and buried himself to the hilt. He couldn't stop, he was lost in the smell of her and the way she gasped and groaned under him.

Her soft body welcomed him, everything he did she accepted. The bite, the way he roughly moved her body exactly where he wanted it. There was no gentleness about him now. He was working only with the animal urge to take some intimacy and make her his.

He gripped her hips and turned her over putting her on all fours, pounding into her. What were moans and groans of his name suddenly became expletives and shouts as he found the perfect angle. He gripped her hips harder, driving into her with force.

Suddenly she cried out, her face falling into her hands as she came. Her muscles clamped down on him, dragging his orgasm out of him and milking it for all it was worth.

He slowly picked her up, crushing her back against his chest and cradling her. She leant her head back, resting it on his shoulder as he placed kisses on the side of her face. He moved them, never releasing her from his hold and pulled the sheet up around them.

She pressed back against him firmly as he held her. One arm under her neck and the other over her stomach and tucked underneath her side. He enveloped her into him.

"Now," he panted, rubbing his nose along her shoulder as she lay still trembling from her climax. "Did I knock your roommate off her top spot?"

She laughed, a breathless giggle and turned to look at him over her shoulder. "You're about tied." She teased, her eyes sparkling.

"Huh," He huffed, a look of pure mischief danced across his features. "Well I guess I'll have to try harder next time."

He watched as her eyes widened and placed a kiss on her shoulder, right on top of the teeth marks barely visible in the moonlight. "You didn't think we were done now, did you?"

**A/N: Hello! Just watched the Hurt Locker after not watching it for over a year and this little thing just hit me full speed and wouldn't let me go. What do you guys think of this little interlude? Can be one shot, could carry on for few chapters, depends on what you guys want. Want me to continue? Ideas for things you'd like me to have Sergeant Will do? Hit the little button below, show me some love and tell me what you want! I'll be more than happy to oblige! **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N just a warning, there is talk of injuries in here, though nothing specific and lets face it, if you managed to watch the Hurt Locker then my little fic isn't going to destroy your sensibilities. I don't think…**

* * *

She stirred in her sleep, her hair brushing his cheek as she moved. He opened his eyes to see the room still in darkness. Not morning yet.

He smiled, still time to do that again.

His hand slowly pulled out from underneath her body and flattened against her stomach. Moving very slowly he ran his hand down her thigh to her knee and back.

She moaned and shifted back, her ass pressing against his already hard arousal. He lifted his head and kissed her neck, running his lips over the skin and tasting her.

She was so responsive to him. He moaned as he saw her bite her lip in her sleep. A gesture that was so simple but that made him even harder. He ran his hand over side and down her hip.

She gasped and moaned his name.

She was awake.

He laughed against her throat as he pressed a kiss to the soft skin where her shoulder met her neck. She shivered as his hands moved over her body. One of his hands travelled over the small swell of her stomach and caressed her intimately.

Will let out a throaty chuckle as his fingers brushed her sex, drawing another moan from her lips. Moving quickly so as to catch her off guard he lifted her leg and thrust into her again. She cried out in pleasure at his body's invasion of hers. He began a slow, strong rhythm, making her breath slowly quicken until she was panting.

Her hands reached back to his body and gripped his hips urging him to move faster, harder, anything to slacken the need in her. He did as she asked, his thrusts becoming harder and deeper. She felt his hand slide over her stomach to her centre; sliding over her clit and causing her gasp and tremble.

The combination of everything pushed her to the edge and over, before she could prepare herself she was spiralling with pleasure and could think of nothing but the sensations she was feeling. She didn't notice when he tensed and met his release with her.

She lay there panting for a moment as she came back to herself. It was almost too much. She felt his rough hands on her again as he pulled her back into the curve of his body. He inhaled her scent slowly as he held her small fame tightly, she smelt like strawberries and sex, far too edible in his opinion.

"Will," she managed before he interrupted her with a hushing sound.

There was no space for talking here. He was enjoying the after-glow and the soft girl in his arms. He didn't want to analyse this tryst. His mind knew it was wrong but it felt right. At least it did right now and that was all he cared about at this moment.

She sighed and pressed herself against him harder. She fell back to sleep enveloped in his arms as he breathed her in, storing it all up. He wouldn't be forgetting this night in a long time.

* * *

Why do all the weight loss pamphlets given out always have skinny women chasing their kids up a hill looking happy as a lark about it? If you're in a position to be handed one of those pamphlets the chances are you're not going to be chasing anyone's kids up a hill. If they wanted to go for reality they'd put a picture of some poor chubster, crawling the last feet up a hill, red in the face and sucking air in laboured gasps.

At least that was Cassie's reality in high school. She can admit it, and she's not ashamed of the fact that if you were to look at her junior year picture you'd find a round faced girl with braces and glasses. She's proud of how far she's come since those days. Sure, the taunts still haunt her but her self-esteem in there to catch her when she feels vulnerable.

Summer of junior year changed her for the better. She spent the summer on the beach with her cousins, swimming everyday and eventually learning to surf. By the time school started she was a new woman. Her braces came off that spring and she finally convinced her father to get her laser eye surgery as a graduation gift. By college she felt like a million dollars.

Now it wasn't a fairy tale, not another teen movie story about a transformation that came apparently overnight, she'd achieved her current state through blood, sweat and tears. It made her all the more proud of her appearance. After college she had to admit she'd gotten a little arrogant. Well, she didn't admit it, her mother told her straight out before handing her a pamphlet about volunteering. Granted, her mother hadn't planned for her to use her nursing degree as a way to help out in a war zone. More fool her on that one.

Pamphlet pictures had done it again. One look at the pictures of children, hooked up the drips and covered in bandages had Cassie packing her bags and heading for Iraq. Her father was very proud, her mother was horrified but that was them in one stark contrast. Her father was an action man, loved to hunt, did his military time as a young man and now ran a hardware store (a rather profitable one) in California. Her mother was practically a Stepford wife… that pretty much summed her mother up.

So Cassie found herself in the middle of a combat zone, listening the explosions and gunfire on a daily basis. She'd struggled to sleep through the noise at first but exhaustion saw to that issue. It took her a month to get over the fear that she was going to be shot. By the time her team got to the scene the shooters had fled or the bomb had already gone off, logic eventually dampened her fears. After two months she was numb to blood and gore, the only thing that still tugged at her was the children.

Any injured child was one too many.

She wondered if that's why she'd been so open to Will's interest in her. She'd spent the day cradling a little boy that they'd found buried under rubble after an explosion. They'd been unable to find any relatives and the little boy didn't want to let Cassie go so she'd held him. For six hours she held him until the surgeons were finally ready to take him into theatre. He'd gone to sleep in her arms after the anaesthesiologist had put the mask over his face and she'd planned on being there when he woke up.

That was not going to happen, looking at her watch she realised she'd missed his wake up time by now. It was already dawn. Thank you very much, Will, with your bottle of scotch and teasing words.

She slipped out of Will's bed, searching around for her clothes until she realised that not only were her panties no longer in one piece but her shirt was somewhere by the remnants of their camp fire. She huffed out a breath, pulling her shorts on and gripping her torn panties in her closed fist. She pulled on her bra then looked around for something to put on.

She found one of his shirts on the table and pulled it on quickly. She was enveloped by the smell uniquely him, a heady mixture of cigarettes, sweat and cologne, which she shouldn't find arousing but, damn it all, she did. She sidled up the bed, placing her destroyed underwear carefully on the pillow beside him before she crept back.

With one last look at his sleeping form she slipped out of his barracks and headed for the Red Cross camp, praying no one stopped her.

* * *

Will awoke to find himself alone in bed. Well, alone aside from her panties sitting right in front of his face. He blinked against the light coming in the window above his bed. He picked up her underwear smiling at the memories before stuffing them under his pillow. At least he wasn't hung over, couldn't say the same of his team though.

He found them all in the mess hall, all different shades of green and none of them appeared ready for action. Good job that today, baring any calls, was an on-base day.

"Well ladies," he smiled, dropping onto the bench between them. "Are you feeling a little delicate this morning?"

He received grunted replies from his men. "I'm gonna go check on Smyth over in medical. You boys need to be checking your equipment today." He leant in closely, "and by that I mean laying in your barracks catching some sleep. If we get a call you two need to be capable of coherent thought."

He stood, leaving them to make their way back to their barracks, and marched from the tent to the main through-fare. He hitched a lift on the back of a truck on its way to the medical centre and arrived outside the Red Cross tent first. He needed to talk to a certain nurse about the proper morning after protocol.

"What can we do for you, Sergeant?" A little woman with a mousy face and glasses asked him from behind her clipboard.

His lip twitched as he tried not to smile. "I wanted to check on one of your nurses, she was pretty shook up by what happened at the market yesterday."

"Oh, Carrie." Mousey said, pushing her glasses back up her nose with her index finger. "She's back there in recovery with the boy." Mousey leant in and added, "They don't think he's going to make it."

Will straightened, he didn't know what to do with that piece of information. From his very limited knowledge of Cassie he knew her weakness was injured children. She'd been pretty upset that the boy was injured with no one to look after him, Will could totally understand that.

"Can I go back there?" He asked.

Mousey nodded, pointing to the bed at the very bottom of the tent.

He approached her cautiously, seeing how she was leant over the boy talking to him in whispers.

"Does he speak English?" Will asked quietly, still managing to startle her.

She looked over at him, her eyes shining with unshed tears before she shook her head. "But I think the tone of my voice is helping just as much as the words as I say. He's coming round more and more."

"Are you alright?"

He heard her mirthless chuckle. "That's not really important right now." She turned to look at Will once more, "What are you doing here, Will?"

"I wanted to check up on you, maybe grab some breakfast and talk. I get you're busy." He glanced at the boy lying on the bed. "I can come back later if you want."

"I don't…" The words seem to catch in her throat and she stifled a sob, wrapping her arms around her chest as though holding herself together.

Will reacted purely on instinct as he gathered her up in his arms and held her close. He felt her body shake with every silent sob and wondered how someone so feeling can survive in this carnival of souls.

"It's not right." She whispered against his chest. "No one should have to go through this without their family with them."

He didn't tell her it'll be ok because that would be a lie, instead he dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "People are searching for his family, if they're there then they'll find them."

He felt her nod against his chest before she pulled back, offering him a watery smile, "I know."

She stepped away from him, looking back at the boy whose eyes are fluttering but not opening. "I need to stay with him for now. I'm his nurse in charge while he's in recovery."

"Alright, I'll come find you when you're free."

As he turns to leave her small hand reaches out and tugs him back, leaning up she presses a chaste kiss to his lips. "Thank you."

He looks down at her and smiles, "Any time."

* * *

**A/N – bit of a cliff hanger, kinda… sorta… if you squint you'll see it. I suck at characters, give me two established characters to work with any day and I'll manage so much better. Anyway, tell me what you think! Come on, leave me a review. It's kinda lonely for those three reviews up there, I think it needs a few friends….**


	3. Chapter 3

The boy doesn't make it. She shouldn't have been surprised, even if they'd been in a state of the art hospital with the best surgeons money could buy he would have had very little chance. It doesn't make it any easier to handle.

They couldn't find anyone who knew who he was. They'd buried him with a little ceremony in a local cemetery as they always did, marking his grave with a cross. She knelt before it now, a wilting flower clutched tightly in her palm. The sunset was dazzling her, and her knees ached before she finally realised how long she'd knelt there.

She unwillingly climbed to her feet, her knees protesting against the movement and her back cracking as she straightened. She slowly made her way over to the waiting convoy, sparing one last glance at his final resting place before she climbed into the jeep.

* * *

She was awoken from a fitful sleep by the sound of someone knocking on her door. She buried her head under her pillow and prayed they'd go away. Luck wasn't on her side as the knocking continued. Eventually sheer frustration dragged her from her bed and to her door.

She knew who'd be on the other side before she even opened it up. He was there.

"What do you want, Will?" The exhaustion she felt leaked into her voice, making her sound hoarse and gravelly.

"Can I come in? I'm gonna get caught if I stand here any longer."

Huffing out a breath she pulled the door wide and let him in, before she shut the door behind him.

"So what is it?" She griped, sitting on the end of her bed with a thump.

His brows drew together as he looked at her. "I said I wanted to talk before but this is the first time you've been alone in two days."

"I'm exhausted Will, can't we talk later?" She asked as she rubbed the heels of her hands into her tired eyes.

"I…" He trailed off, scrutinizing her face. "Are you mad at me?"

"What?" Exasperation was leaking into her voice now.

"You seem kinda pissed at me right now."

She growled quietly, her hands balling up into fists. "You listen to me, Will. The world doesn't revolve around you and the little band of brother's thing you got going on. I am mad, you're damn right about that but I'm not mad at you! In order to be mad at you I'd have to first give a shit! I just buried a boy with no name, in a plot with no head stone because some deluded terrorists decided that the market place he was playing in just needed blowing sky high! What pleased Allah about his death I don't know but I am mad as hell that it happened. I'm angry we're here, I'm angry he's dead and I'm angry that we couldn't find his family for him. You do not appear on that list anywhere!"

She panted as she finished speaking, her energy dissolving with her words. "Get out." She whispered, slowly climbing up her bed and turning her back on him.

"Cassie, I get it. Seriously, I understand-"

"Get out." She whispered brokenly. "I can't handle anything else right now."

Will looked at her. She was so small on the bed, curled up into a ball and hugging her knees to her chest. He wanted to climb up behind her and hold her. He wanted to take all the pain he had seen on her face away. But how can he do that? He's more fucked up than she is. He's destroyed in so many ways that he can't begin to understand and doesn't want to. How can he do her any good? She's young, she'll heal better than he will.

Her emotional wounds will be soothed by a life away from this hell hole. He cannot find that balm anymore. The only thing he can do is continue to risk his life, live from one buzz to the next and pray there's never a gap long enough for the wounds to begin to sting again.

Finally, with regret, he does as she asks, leaving her to her silence.

* * *

"He's staring at you again."

Cassie looked up from the chart, squinting against the harsh light of the town centre. "What?"

"That guy, from the other day." Jan prodded her glasses back up her nose and nodded her head to somewhere behind Cassie.

Cassie refused to look over shoulder, she already felt like shit for what she said to him the other night. If she looked at him and saw even an ounce of hurt on his face then she'd feel ten times worse about the whole thing.

"He'll stop it soon enough, I'm not that interesting from the back."

"What happened between you two?" Jan asked, taking the chart from Cassie's hand and putting it onto the chest of the man they had in the back of the make-shift ambulance.

Cassie busied herself with checking the stretcher was secure and closing the doors, trying to ignore the question for as long as she could. As the ambulance pulled away Jan still stood before her, her arms crossed over her stomach and a look of concern on her face.

No avoiding it anymore it would seem. "I may have said something to him that was, quite possibly, almost but not entirely, completely hurtful and cruel."

Jan squinted at her, tilting her head slightly to the side. "That doesn't sound like you. What did he do?"

"He didn't do anything," Cassie sighed, wiping the sheen of sweat from her forehead with her handkerchief. "That's what makes what I said even worse. I was upset about the boy and he just chose the wrong time to try and 'date me' so to speak."

"Date you?" Jan's interest was piqued as they headed back to their jeep where Dan waited with the engine running.

"He wanted to talk, have a proper conversation and I was completely in the wrong place for that." Cassie hissed as she sat on the hot plastic of the seat, her shorts riding up the expose her thighs to it with no barrier. "Wrong place, wrong time; story of my life." Cassie laughed depreciatively.

"Well what you said can't have been that hurtful cause the guys still watching you like a hawk."

Cassie dared to look in his direction as the jeep began to move away. Sure enough she could see Will staring back at her, he raised a hand in a small wave but Cassie's hand refused to respond before they were out of sight. Her heart sank as she realised he would probably take that as a direct dismissal of him, a rejection of his gesture and she couldn't help feeling just a little bit shitier for it.

* * *

Cassie was enjoying the first good nights sleep she's had in over a week when someone decided to encroach on it. At first she tried to ignore the knocking but after thirty seconds of someone attempting to beat down her down with their hand she gave up on playing possum and answered it with an angry, "What?"

"Woah there, cowgirl. Don't be rude." Will speech was slurred and the way he leant against his specialist told her everything she needed to know.

"Are you drunk?" She asked, glaring at him. She hadn't seen him since the day in the town centre, she was sure he was avoiding her at all costs which stung more than she ever thought it would, but obviously not quite since he was leaning heavily on his specialist in her doorway.

"Not as drunk as he thinks I am."

"Try a whole bottle of scotch to yourself, that's how drunk you are." His specialist groused, she seemed to remember his name was Gregs or some such thing. "Can I bring him in please? He's a heavy mother-fucker."

"Sure," Cassie huffed, stepping aside to let them stagger into her quarters. He made it to her bed and dumped Will on it, stretching out his back afterwards. "I get he's drunk, why'd you bring him to me?"

"Because this drunken idiot broke the bottle then fell on his ass and cut his arm up. It's pretty nasty."

Cassie felt a growl trying to work its way out of her chest as she looked at Will. "You better not be bleeding on my bed. Why didn't you take him to medical?"

"He's drunk, they'll write him up on it if I do."

"Serve him right," Cassie mumbled before she climbed on the bed beside Will and lifted his bandaged arm. "This is gonna need stitches," she winced, glancing under the half assed attempt at first aid they'd made.

"I can get you anything you need." Greggs answered.

"Don't need to," She sighed, reaching under her bed and pulling out a box filled with medical supplies. "You can go Greggs, he'll need to stay here if I'm giving him a local anaesthetic, I gotta watch him overnight."

"You sure?" Greggs asked, eyeing the door all the same.

"Go," She offered, pulling of the fabric and beginning to clean off the blood with an alcohol wipe.

He hissed, uttering several curses and yanking his arm away from her.

She levelled him with a dark look. "Hold still."

"Why should I?" He asked mutinously, his chin jutting out.

"Because if you don't hold still there's only one alternative." She leant forward, staring into his eyes with a cold calculation she knew would be taken seriously. "I'm gonna tie you down and stitch my initials into your arm."

He stared back, gauging how serious she was before offering his arm back and laying as still as a drunk person can.

"Good boy." She chuckled, cleaning the wound again.

She finally cleaned all the blood away and began probing the wound to check for glass when he spoke. "You never let me finish the other night." He slurred.

"Um?" She mumbled, concentrating on the vial of pain killers as she slowly drew enough out into a thin syringe.

"When I told you that I understood. You didn't let me explain why I understood."

Cassie glanced up at him. His eyes were closed as he lay back on the bed.

"Sharp scratch," she warned as she began injecting the painkillers around the deep cuts on his arm.

He didn't move, allowing her to finish. She pulled out the equipment she needed to stitch him up. "So explain now."

Her eyes were entirely focused upon the task at hand but she heard his slow intake of breath.

"It was during my last tour." He began, the fingers of his free arm slowly tracing a pattern on her exposed thigh absently. She was in no position to stop him and in all honesty she didn't mind. "I got a bit of a bond going with a boy who used to sell DVD's at the base, Beckham he said he was called. He was a good kid, a pain in the ass at times and a complete con-artist but still good."

Tying off a stitch she glanced up at him, seeing the soft smile playing around his lips as he spoke. His eyes remained shut.

"We got a tip about a bomb maker being holed up in this factory across town so we went to investigate." He took a deep steadying breath as he relived the memory inside his own head. "We found a bomb maker alright, enough explosives to blow us all the hell and all the shit needed to make that happen. We didn't bank on a body bomb."

Cassie's hand froze right before she inserted the needle to stitch his second and final cut. She'd heard of body bombs, been trained to spot one but never actually seen one. The horror of a dead body alone is shocking but to see where someone heartlessly cut into them to turn them into something made to kill others must have been traumatizing.

"It was a little boy and I was sure it was Beckham. I went a little crazy then, did stupid shit I didn't even think about doing before and then he showed up again. It wasn't him. It still doesn't change the fact that I had to dig a shit load of C4 out of a little boys body, just so we could bury him."

She heard his choke but couldn't stop what she was doing. She had another stitch to go before she could tie it off and do what she so desperately wanted to do.

"So I do get it." He finished, his voice steady once again. "I really do. It's horrible and it's despicable but if we're not here fighting against it then those people are defenceless."

She tied off the stitch, dumping the needle into the sharps container and ripping her gloves off. Turning she lay down in front of him, reaching out a hand to rest on his cheek.

"I'm sorry, Will." She said, it was pathetic and worthless but it was all she could offer him. "I was a total cow, I know that but I really am sorry that I said what I did. I do give a shit about you. And I'm sorry you had to go through all that last time around."

"Not your fault." He opened an eye to look at her. "Am I all stitched up?"

"Yeah, I just gotta put a dressing on then you can get in bed. You're gonna have to sleep all this booze off."

"I'm not that bad." He huffed, trying to sit up and falling back against the bed with a thump, his uninjured forearm resting across his eyes. "Ok, maybe I am a little worse for wear right now."

"A little?" She snorted, retrieving a large dressing from the end of the bed and applying it to his arm.

"Right," she huffed, looking at him where he lay. "Shirt off, pants off and into bed."

"Pants off?" He smiled, his forearm still obscuring his face. "I do believe you're trying to get me naked."

"Hah-de-har," she sniped, "Come on, get to it, some of us need some sleep tonight. Well, what sleep can be had between checking your still breathing every hour anyway."

"I'm fine." He groused, slowly doing as she told him.

She flicked off the light and joined him on the bed, leaving a respectable gap between their bodies. He didn't seem to agree with that idea as he reached up and pulled her back against him so his body could curl around hers, his injured arm resting down her side and over her thigh.

"This is entirely for medical purposes, you understand." He mumbled into her hair. "You don't have to move to check I'm breathing."

She laughed quietly. He was pressed so close behind her that she could feel every intake of breath. Not only that but she could feel his exhale as it ruffled her hair slightly. She wondered briefly what this all meant now. They had yet to have any kind of conversation that wasn't effected by alcohol or anger. As she drifted off to sleep she decided they really had to have a proper conversation... one day.

_A/N I am chastened and ashamed, I have neglected all my writing recently. Life has this irratating tendancy of getting in the way. I will finish this story and hopefully start making headway in my Loki fic soon!_


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